


Hindsight

by kangeiko



Category: Alias
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-12-22
Updated: 2006-12-22
Packaged: 2017-10-05 00:35:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/35795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kangeiko/pseuds/kangeiko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: charity.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hindsight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Andraste](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Andraste/gifts).



Emily is fastidious about it, and Arvin indulges her. Not that he wouldn't do something about it himself, mind you, but it always occurs to Emily first. It's who she is.

It's who she is becoming, and the thought makes him faintly uncomfortable. With each passing week, Emily becomes more and more aware of her own mortality, and the odd occurances begin. At first, they are benign: extra locks, more time in the outdoors (health and safety and vitality and God alone knows what else) and all the swaddling linen a child could ever need. She starts taking vitamin supplements and watching what she eats and hindsight being twenty-twenty, Sloane berates himself for not putting a stop to it. For encouraging her, even.

"And this one, Arvin. This one is for a children's shelter in San Diego." One by one: the dutiful husband signs the cheques and hands them over. Emily seals the envelopes herself and takes the careful walk over to the local Post Office. It has become more than a routine, but Arvin does not have the words needed to express his disquiet.

It is only later that he is able to name it as obsessive-compulsive.

When Arvin joined the CIA, his mother gave a substantial donation to a local church and spent many days in prayer. At the time, Arvin had assumed that it was to keep him safe. Hindsight reveals the truth, and it is deeply unpleasant.

"Arvin? We've had a request from a local hospice."

He hasn't done anything wrong. He knows this to be intellectually true, but the evidence of his eyes deceives him. His wife spends more and more time in the garden, hands meditatively stroking her swelling belly and thinking of yet more charities to donate to. In hindsight, the implication makes him sick to his stomach. I haven't done anything _wrong_, Emily; but Emily is a good company wife and never speaks of it. He is a good company man, and never brings the subject up.

What could it hurt?

Emily is eight months along, and if it makes her rest a little easier to atone for her husband's imagined sins, then it is the least he can do.

They are having steamed chicken and asparagus for dinner. "Arvin. There's a school on 34th and Broadway that needs --"

And Sloane acquiesces.

*

fin


End file.
